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Sunday, April 27, 2008

Gandhi Peace Brigade/ Clinton Clings to "Precious"

Dear Friends,

Hillary Clinton said on Good Morning America, "I want the Iranians to know that if I'm the president, we will attack Iran ... In the next 10 years, during which they might foolishly consider launching an attack on Israel, we would be able to totally obliterate them."

Hillary Clinton has not only launched a verbal attack against a country populated with people who love Americans, she has also initiated a pre-emptive strike against Barack Obama. Democrats fear he will now be forced to ratchet up his rhetoric regarding Iran or risk appearing weak in the eyes of the electorate.

According to the Union of Concerned Scientists, a “limited” nuclear attack on the main Iranian underground site in Esfahan, "the most beautiful city in Iran", would result in three million deaths by radiation within two weeks and the exposure of 35 million people to dangerous levels of radiation in Afghanistan, Pakistan, and India.

Photos we took in Esfahan as part of our Global Exchange Citizen Diplomacy Delegation: http://flickr.com/photos/codepinkalert/sets/72157604766477975/show/

Obliterate Them! (gives a literary and historical perspective with quotes from Kurt Vonnegut and others) http://www.commondreams.org/archive/2008/04/26/8539/

The United States was the first country to develop nuclear weapons, and the only nation to use them to "obliterate" hundreds of thousands of innocent civilians. Much like the Japanese population, Iranians can only hold their leaders accountable through elections. If the United States attacks Iran, the people of Iran will rally behind Ahmadinejad. If the United States doesn't attack, Iranians will probably elect someone more moderate in their upcoming election in March, 2009. The majority of Iranians are as unhappy with Ahmadinejad as we are with Bush. Both of our leaders would benefit from a war ... the people, of course, would not.

Iran has not initiated an attack on another country in over 200 years. A recent National Intelligence Estimate, representing a consensus view of 16 U.S. spy agencies, says Iran halted its nuclear weapons development program in the fall of 2003 due to international pressure and would not be capable of developing a nuclear weapon until sometime between 2010 and 2015: http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=16846056.

Clinton's remark was not a thoughtless slip of the tongue. She voted to authorize the Bush administration's invasion of Iraq, a country that posed no imminent threat to the United States, possessed no weapons of mass destruction, and had nothing to do with the 9-11 attacks. She voted in favor of the Kyl-Lieberman measure designating the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps as a Terrorist Organization. She also voted against a Feinstein-Leahy amendment banning the sale of cluster bombs for use in heavily populated civilian areas. The majority of the victims of unexploded cluster munitions are children. http://www.cmep.org/Alerts/2006Sept7.htm

An Iranian-American friend has said," [Clinton's] remarks have shocked and saddened Iranians, particularly women among whom she used to be admired. I bought the Persian translation of Mrs. Clinton's autobiography about a year and a half ago. Within the first year of its publication in Iran, 40,000 Iranians read it." It is now in it's 4th edition.

Laura Santina says,"I can’t support Hillary because I don’t know who she is and I don’t think she does either. I followed a trail of clues in search of Hillary Rodham Clinton and found myself at the feet of a political party hack whose core values are — and have been for a long time — a liquid gas poised to morph into anybody or anything it takes to win." http://www.commondreams.org/archive/2008/04/24/8501/

Hillary Clinton reminds me of Gollum, a character in "The Lord of the Rings". Gollum strangles his best friend Deagol to acquire the ring, his "Precious". Is Hillary willing to strangle the Democratic party to satisfy her quest for power? Hopefully she will resist the temptation of the ring and morph into Galadriel, the Queen of the Elves, before it's too late.

Peace and Freedom,

Jes & Leslie

U.S. Weighing Readiness for Military Action Against Iranwww.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/04/25/AR2008042501480.htmlPetraeus Promotion Frees Cheney to Threaten Iranhttp://www.commondreams.org/archive/2008/04/24/8492/